Help close down Kharkiv ZOO/UKRAINE and save the surviving animals!

The Kiev Zoo has been left to deteriorate to a point where up to 500 animals died in the last two and a half years, a tragedy which is still ongoing and animals continue to die as we speak due to neglect, cruelty and starvation. Help close down Kharkiv ZOO, Kiev/Ukraine with immediate effect and save the surviving animals NOW, before it is too late!

Letter to

WSPA

Born Free Foundation

Sophie Doremus, EAZA

We find deeply disturbing the extent to which the Kiev Zoo has been left to deteriorate. The situation led to the death of up to 500 animals at this ZOO in the last two and a half years, a tragedy which is still ongoing and animals continue to die as we speak. Despite repeated pleas to the Kiev Government, cruelty, neglect and starvation goes on with no end in sight. It is a real disgrace that animal lovers have to send out desperate cries for help to anybody everywhere in the world to feed the Zoo’s animals, as if there were no authorities with the mission or mandate to look after such establishments in Europe. The terrible conditions the animals are being kept in this Zoo, besides being left to starve and without medical attention are truly appalling. Here are just a few examples:

Boy, an Indian elephant, collapsed and died in his enclosure because employees, seemingly purposefully fluctuated his diet so extremely that it caused heart failure. Several fish also died back in December because a power outage cut the oxygen supply to their tank. A bison is fed on bread scraps while the monkeys are crammed into claustrophobic, dirty quarters. A camel died of digestive illness and a zebra crashed into a metal fence and died. A bear also died recently after hitting his head against the wall, being depressed from living in those horrific conditions and many more just disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Audits of the zoo have found that the zoo has illegally sold its animals, purchased animals which never arrived, and money that was allotted to buy food and medicine vanished.Animal advocacy groups have accused zoo officials of purposefully killing off animals so that they can sell the land that the zoo sits on.

It seems those animals have been abandoned by Ukraine as well as the rest of the world. We demand the closure of the Kiev Zoo with immediate effect! Save the surviving animals before it is too late! PLEASE ACT NOW!